Deck Rates: Rivals Of Ixalan Standard

With the current Standard format being new and fresh, many people are wondering what deck they should be playing at their local FNMs, PPTQs, and StarCityGames.com® IQs, and I'm here to help out. While I was in the Modern seat at both #SCGDFW and #SCGPHILLY, I watched a lot of Jim Davis's Standard matches right next to me, have been talking with people about the format, and have also been playing plenty of Standard to prepare for the Magic Online PTQ this weekend. So today I'm going to rate Standard's top decks on two metrics: sweetness and quality. The sweetness rating will be about how fun to play and how unique the deck is, while the quality rating will be about how good the deck is at winning matches. Different players have different goals when playing decks, so my two-part rating scale will help you find the perfect deck!

Sideboard

Let's start with Grixis Energy, which has replaced Temur Energy as the new best deck of Rivals of Ixalan Standard so far. It's simply filled with the best cards in the format and has the ability to adapt after sideboard to whatever your opponents are trying to throw at you. The only reasons Grixis Energy didn't get a 10/10 for the quality rating are the lack of ways to interact with resolved enchantments as well as a manabase that will cost you games at times. The high curve also doesn't do it any favors, but that's the cost of running so many individually powerful cards.

Grixis Energy only has two sweet cards in it with Rekindling Phoenix and Dreamstealer; everything else is boring and I've seen enough of it already, making it a generally boring deck. Most "best decks" of the format are like that, though, so don't mind it if your goal is simply to win, as Grixis Energy is a wonderful choice to do just that.

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Most people start with trying G/B Constrictor at first, but I firmly believe a version of Sultai will always be better to run than its two-color counterpart. Having access to The Scarab God and counterspells is vital in Standard, and with the ability to run an extra fastland in Botanical Sanctum, I don't see the benefits of leaving blue behind. The G/B shell is effective against other creature strategies and the blue splash gives you game against the noncreature decks, making it a necessity.

Nothing too exciting that we haven't seen for a while going on here, but Snakes making ridiculously big creatures is pretty cool, so Winding Constrictor helps out the sweetness factor. Plus, who doesn't like going around and exploring new places thanks to Jadelight Ranger? Overall, not a deck to write home about, but there are some nice interactions for you midrange fans.

Ouch, dropping blue really hurts the deck. You lose the best card of the format, The Scarab God, and good ways to interact with your opponents' noncreature spells while gaining……um….Foul Orchard? Any deck has the ability to win games when things break your way, but I've seen this deck in action plenty and haven't seen it win much. If you want to play Winding Constrictor, please add the blue splash into the deck. If you want to read more about G/B Constrictor, see Jadine Klomparens's article here, but I'm going to continue on with some more aggressive decks.

Spells (11)

Sideboard

I'm not one to usually like giving the beatdowns. It's not the kind of Magic that I usually sign up for, but even I can't deny how good Craig Krempels's Jeskai Aggro deck is. You're going to win a large percentage of Game 1 with sixteen one-drops backed up by Hazoret the Fervent while your opponent is stumbling along with their three-color manabase. Splashing blue for just a few Negates presents an angle of defense that the opponent most likely won't be ready for after sideboarding, but that's not even the coolest part of the deck.

We have to have some white cards in order for our deck to be Jeskai, and there isn't a better one than Path of Mettle. When the going gets tough, all you need to do is look at that Path of Mettle in your hand to give you the spirit to carry on and triumph thanks to Metzali. Tournaments are long battles, and I want Path of Mettle on my side to help get through it.

Everyone knows the gameplan of Mardu Vehicles by now: be as aggressive as possible Game 1 with the ability to transform into a planeswalker-fueled midrange deck after sideboarding. But like John Stockton and Karl Malone running the pick and roll, just because everyone knows the gameplan doesn't mean they can stop it. Despite some consistency issues, Mardu Vehicles is a deck that I'm never surprised to see do well at any tourney and is a solid choice for finishing first.

I was all ready to give this deck a lower sweetness rating based on how much Mardu Vehicles we've seen in the past, but Dylan Donegan helped out by playing sweet planeswalkers. Just like the deck, Huatli, Warrior Poet is incredibly versatile and each mode is useful depending on the game state. Angrath, the Flame-Chained is a Minotaur-Pirate, so enough said, and who doesn't like using a map to search for treasure?

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I really like Matt Tumavitch's take on G/R Aggro and it's my favorite version of the various G/R Monsters style decks so far. Even though it only does one "thing" for the most part, play creatures and attack your opponent, it does that just as well as any other midrange deck. The cards I've been most impressed with in his version compared to others are both Khenras as well as the full set of Struggle // Survive.

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I got to watch Jim Davis play this deck all weekend and it looked really good. The only things he struggled with were some resolved artifacts and enchantments that were win conditions, such as Dynavolt Tower, Profane Procession, and Drake Haven. It was dominant against the various G/R and Grixis Energy decks, and I was also surprised how well he fared against Mono-Red Aggro. If you like to play control decks or have plenty of Grixis in your area, this could be the deck for you. I'm sure Jim will be writing about the deck himself this week, so I'll let him tell you some of the intricacies, but for the most part, it's simply a good old-fashioned control deck.

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I've seen Marionette Master combo decks plenty before, but this time it's being used in a base B/W Token Control deck that is looking to get value from the various artifacts leaving the battlefield via either Hidden Stockpile or Marionette Master. The four maindeck copies of Settle the Wreckage probably caught players off-guard all weekend, especially when being cast from Treasure or Etherium Cell tokens. I'm not sure how good this deck truly is, or how good it will be moving forward once people get used to playing against it, but for now I'm sure you'll be able to surprise some opponents.

Sideboard

To be completely honest, I still have yet to see this deck in action, but I really like what's going on here. Each of the creatures effectively has to be killed twice in order to be dealt with, assuming there isn't an Anointed Procession on the battlefield when you Embalm or Eternalize your creature. I think I'd like to see a couple fewer lands in the deck and a couple of copies of Strategic Planning to help smooth your draws and fill your graveyard with creatures, but that's just a cursory opinion and may not be correct.

This deck takes the second clause on Ixalan's Binding and cranks it up to eleven with three copies of Gideon's Intervention in the sideboard, which is probably the most underrated sideboard card in the format. Not only can your opponent never again cast the card you name with Gideon's Intervention, but they also can't deal damage to you or your permanents with it as well. Besides interactions like against Approach of the Second Sun, imagine your opponent has two Glorybringers on the battlefield when you cast Gideon's Intervention. Not only do you essentially turn them into 0/4 defenders for the rest of the game, you also stop any more from being cast later. I like a lot of what this deck has going on and it's one I'm excited to play soon.

Sideboard

There's only so bad a deck with The Scarab God can be, and Esper Gift is looking for the floor. The metagame has adapted to the various God-Pharaoh's Gift decks, with most decks having either maindeck graveyard hate, Abrades, or both. I'd still rather register this deck over G/B Constrictor simply due to the power of The Scarab God as well as having access to four Negate and four Duress in the sideboard, but unless Gate to the Afterlife is really your thing, then you can do better.

Spells (6)

Sideboard

And we've gotten to the part of the article with the most medium deck in Standard: Merfolk. You simply play out two-drop after two-drop, sprinkle in some three-drops and poor interaction, and hope it's good enough for the win. It's not necessarily a bad deck nor a good deck. Not exciting, but doesn't disappoint. It's purely Merfolk and that's about it.

Sideboard

For those of you who like cheaper decks that are a blast to play, try out W/U Auras. I got to watch Ross Merriam pilot it for the first time at the BCW Challenge event this past Friday before #SCGPHILLY and he was like a kid in a candy store.

Any time you get to play some Cats and put a bunch of sweet enchantments on them and draw a bunch of cards, I'm sold. Even though this deck mostly looks like a Draft deck, I've consistently been impressed with how good it has been each time I've seen it. For more on W/U Auras, check out Jim's article about it here.

Sideboard

I've been mostly playing Bant Approach this past week while preparing for the Magic Online PTQ this weekend, and this is my current list. It attacks the metagame from a different angle by going way over the top of everything else. Even though the deck uses Approach of the Second Sun as its main win condition, the various utility lands can also finish off games by either milling your opponent out or pumping the Zombie tokens made by Hour of Promise.

The thing that makes this deck so fun to play is the abundance of utility lands that do wildly different things. Hour of Promise is the best card in the deck, as it tutors for any two lands you would like, usually Arch of Orazca and Ipnu Rivulet, while also providing two creatures for defense. It's still not my favorite card, though; that would be Thaumatic Compass, which transforms into Spires of Orazca once you have seven lands, which forces your opponents to overextend into Fumigate or Settle the Wreckage. If you like having an abundance of mana and utility lands that help you go over the top of your opponents, then Bant Approach is the deck for you!

Sideboard

I'm going to end today's list with a fun brew I made and have played a couple of Leagues with on Magic Online so far with a good amount of success. The goal of this deck is to use Madcap Experiment, Refurbish, or God-Pharaoh's Gift to cheat powerful Gearhulks onto the battlefield. Although getting God-Pharaoh's Gift onto the battlefield is the goal of the deck, sometimes you need to use Refurbish to reanimate your creatures when you're expecting your opponent to have Abrade.

The deck has an incredibly high curve, making putting cards into your graveyard via the Combustible Gearhulk trigger a liability. I've won a game before with my opponent taking 26 damage from one trigger, but most of the time it's dealing around ten damage, which changes the outlook of the game immediately. Most of the time the opponent can't risk losing to the trigger, meaning your 6/6 first striker is entering the battlefield with an Ancestral Recall attached. Noxious Gearhulk fills a vital role of giving the deck both removal and lifegain while being difficult to block because of menace. I've had a blast with this deck so far and recommend it for anyone wanting to do ridiculously powerful things.

This Standard format is looking wonderful so far, with aggro, midrange, and control all seeming like good choices to win a tournament with. Plus, there's still plenty of room for innovation and growth, as the metagame is just starting to form.

Do you have a deck you'd like me to rate? If so, let me know what you've been brewing up and I'll give it a rating!

About Todd Stevens

Todd Stevens is one of the SCG Tour's most consistent players, specializing primarily in Modern. Five straight Open Top 8s, with two wins, when playing Modern from March to July of 2017 helped propel him to win 2017 SCG Tour Player of the Year, a title he's looking to defend in 2018.